A brief look at Tirana on our last day

We returned the car at Tirana airport a day early and went by bus into the capital city - a 20 minute ride depending on the traffic.  We had three hours to get a quick look around.

Statute of national hero Skenderbeu.

In contrast, the controversial pyramid memorial to Enver Hoxha that nobody knows what to do with.  Some want it demolished but it is standing there full of graffiti.

We went to the museum Bunk'art 2.  This is a sort of memorial to the crazy, paranoid, communist regime in Albania.  A tunnel to the vast bunker was built for the Ministry of Internal Affairs between 1981 and 1986 and the bunker is one of the largest of the 175,000 bunkers built across the country.  This bunker, code named "Objekti Shytilla", consisted of 24 rooms and a decontamination chamber in case of nuclear attack.

The sculpture of barbed wire in front of the Bunk'art 2.

Albanian rotisserie with a row of sheep or goat heads in front of the chickens.

This is our last day in Albania.  We enjoyed the warmth and friendliness of the people everywhere we went.  They were unfailingly helpful and interested in us.  Albania's developing tourism infrastructure is still in it's infancy but things are moving fast, especially along the coastal areas.  We hope that when the tourists fully discover this little gem of a country, the people remain as nice as they currently are.

To end this visit to Albania, the two headed eagle, representing union of north and south which is the national emblem on their flag.